102 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Norwich Priory, and the great Abbey at Abingdon.* The monks 

 had communication with Italy, France, and Spain, and through 

 them our gardens must have gained much in many ways 

 (" Hist. Gardening in England," p. 8). 



Although we had no real gardening books until the middle 

 of the fifteenth century, the art itself, as I have already hinted, 

 had long been practised, and this more especially in Southern 

 and Western England. The following extract from records of 

 the fourteenth century, in the Guildhall Library, throws a very 

 interesting side light on gardening in and near London in the 

 time of Edward III. 



" Previous to 1345, the gardeners of the Earls, Barons, Bishops, and 

 Citizens of London had a market for ' pulse, cherries, vegetables, and other 

 wares ' on a plot of ground opposite the Church of St. Austin, near the 

 gate of St. Paul's Churchyard. This market grew and became so crowded 

 and noisy as to interfere with passengers, and the ' scurrility, clamour, and 

 nuisance of the gard'ners, and their servants became so obnoxious to 

 reputable people dwelling near, and so annoying to the priests, clerks, and 

 laymen, singing matins and mass in said Church of St. Austin, that the 

 mayor and aldermen were petitioned to interfere and abate the nuisance 

 as we should say.' " 



The market was eventually restricted, but seems to have been 

 but little more seemly than before. This paragraph also shows 

 us that the present-day market gardening is no new thing, but 

 really a respectable old institution. 



Fruit culture especially seems to have received a great 

 stimulus in Tudor times, since it is recorded that Harris, gardener 

 and fruit-grower to King Henry VIII., obtained great store of 

 grafts of Apples and Cherries, &c, from France and the Low 

 Countries, not only for the king's own gardens at Hampton 

 Court and elsewhere, but with which to originate and plant the 

 orchards now so famous in Kent and Surrey. Harris is described 

 as of London, though he is said to have been " borne in Ireland," 

 and he rented seven score acres of ground from his royal master 

 at Tenham in Kent, and planted it with choice and lasting fruits. 

 Woolf, a French priest and gardener to Henry VIII., travelled 

 on the Continent and introduced Salad Herbs, Apricots, Musk 

 Melons, and fine Cherries to the gardens at Nonesuch, near 



* The garden accounts of Norwich Priory from 1340 to 1529, and those 

 of Abingdon Abbey from 13G9 to 1370, have been preserved (v. " Hist, of 

 Gardening," p. 9, Amherst). 



